If your plugins are years old they are probably 32-bit, and will only work on a 32-bit version of Audacity.

By default you will be served up a 64-bit version of Audacity when you download the latest version,

The latest version (3.5.1) is available in 32-bit, and should run on a 64-bit operating system.

It depends what you want to do.

More recent versions of Audacity have introduced a grid for music/bpm.

I'm not interested in this; I make podcasts by going out to where people are, and getting the sounds of what's going on. They can need a lot of editing, so I'm sticking with version 3.1.0.

Get the latest Mac 64 bit version. Should be 3.7.xx

Do not d/l Musehub with it though!!!!!

You can download from this page on the audacity team site and avoid using the Muse Hub.

How much free RAM and drive space do you have?

This might be a stupid answer, but then again there are no stupid answers, if you’re using the noise reduction effect to cancel out noise in the room, sometimes audacity only records for the length of time that you highlighted for the duration of what you recorded to capture the noise profile of the room and won’t actually record past that original segment that you highlighted.

I wouldn’t record for a full 25 minutes without stopping and saving occasionally. Technically the RAM should cope but in practice i just wouldn’t trust it.

As someone who has been using Audacity for at least over a decade, it's the best it has ever been. Currently under the ownership of Muse Group (take a look at how good Musescore 4 is now) who is working to completely revamp the interface - for the better.

Audacity is definitely not perfect, it still has some weird glitches and other perks - but I'm hopeful for the direction it's taking.  

The main thing that changed over the last 4 years is that Audacity was acquired by Muse Group (owners of Muse Score and Ultimate Guitar). They seem to be taking it into a more "GarageBand" direction, while OcenAudio remains more like the old Audacity we knew and loved.

Audacity 2.4.2 was the final release of the Audacity 2 series, and is still available from FossHub. I'm sticking with this version until it eventually stops working as it does everything I need and I find it much more streamlined for my workflow.

thanks for sharing alternatives. What drives me bonkers is having to re-scan audio devices and the general clicks involved in changing my playback setting. Is it the same with this ocenaudio or is this process more seamless?

Word. Probably lots of work to be done. Audacity looked like 💩 and the UX probably was too.

The cool thing is that old versions (ones that work) can be downloaded and used.

Yes.

Just use Audacity when starting out. Then when you later get more comfortable, try out different things. If you end up sticking with Audacity, that's fine. You'd be surprised how many amazing actors/actresses secretly use Audacity ;P

Audacity gets the job done. It's easy to use. It's the not the best. But it does work and it's easier to use than any DAW out there.

But if you can pair Audacity with RX8 Elements, it will make your life much much easier.

Here's the thing.

Recording with your microphone into Audacity or Reaper = same sound

That TLM 103 you have.

If you are in a proper treated studio for it, you can record with Audacity and you will book. Doesn't matter whether that you use Audacity or not.

Imo having tinkered with Reaper.........

Cutting your files and the ability to not do 3 additional steps === Audacity is faster

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I mean for crying out loud, Reaper doesn't even have a proper Normalization button.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Reaper/comments/4rg93z/how_to_normalize_audio_in_reaper_like_in_audacity/

It's a goddamn hassle just to normalize. Audacity does it in a split second.

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Equalization and non destructive editing = Reaper is better

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But as I mentioned, having RX8 Elements or its better variants help a whole lot

Rx8 Voice Denoise > Reaper Reafir

RX8 Declick (using Low Latency) = best Mouthclick removal

RX8 goes on sales every now on then for $29.

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TLDR ========== Audacity is fine. You got a TLM 103. Treat your space. And you'll book.

Audacity for beginners, unless you're familiar with with other creative programs. If you already use something like Illustrator or Photoshop, go with Audition. If you're into making music, you'd probably be more comfortable with Pro Tools or Reaper. Audacity, though limited, is enough, and is easier to start with for sure.

I agree that Reaper has a steeper curve since it's a highly customizable DAW. Reaper is for anyone who looks at parts of their workflow and says "There's gotta be an easier/faster/better way to do this," because chances are there is, you can make it so, and a Google search will point it out for you without you having to use a different DAW. You want to normalize without right-clicking the item's menu or using the normalize shortcut? Just add a button for normalization to the button menu. You can also take any multi-step sequence and map it to a single shortcut. Cut a section out, ripple delete, and glue the remaining ends together all in a single click - yes please! It really provides a jump to your workflow once you figure out how to tailor it for whatever you're using it for. You've got to be comfortable with programs like these in order to get to that point though.

So as someone who was on audacity for half a decade and just swapped to Audition ... I THOUGHT that audacity was enough for real work but it really wasn’t. The professionalism of my deliverables went up an unbelievable amount when I moved away from audacity. It was as big of a jump as when I swapped my Blue Yeti for an XLR mic.

Audacity will get you there but other dates that have easier editing workflow will save you tons of time and make you a more desirable hire if you can work faster

I've stories of people that have made six figures recording in a closet. Six figures using a $75 mic. Six figures using a 2i2 interface, etc.

I've never heard of anyone making six figures using Audacity as their "imitation" daw.

You need to post in the ACX reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ACX/

This group is primarily audiobook fans who buy audiobooks from Audible. I don't imagine you're going to get much help here. Audacity is software. There are lots of tutorials for it on YouTube.

i second plugins, i've also been having fun with piping the audio through guitar pedals and playing with the knobs as it records back into the program. makes me feel so cool

You can use third party VSTs in audacity!

I know! I suppose I was trying to avoid that discussion but yes it’s relevant. I’ve got plenty of Windows based software so would need to crossover. I’ve an open mind on it. Would a MacBook work or is a desktop really necessary I wonder? And is no-one using PCs for this I wonder.

I'm waiting for people to say, have you considered a mac?

For any specialized purpose, whether it’s recording or gaming, building your own and orienting your hardware and cooling around that will serve you much better. If I was buying a pre-built, I’d get a Mac in a heartbeat. I just don’t think most PC manufacturers do a good enough job or give good value relative to using higher quality parts for less money doing it yourself.

If you do buy a PC, make sure to at least reinstall Windows yourself instead of leaving it as they’ve configured it with a bunch of garbage added.

Check the specs of a Dell XPS 9520. That will do fine. I’m at 16gb of RAM and I’m starting to feel that I’m at the lowest limit however it’s running fine with several dozens of tracks with multiple sends, and ofc plenty of vst’s - including the stereo mix bus which has way too much stuff going on.

You can extend security updates for Windows 10 for 1 year for $30 if you want. So you could defer your upgrade for a year.

i didnt know about its latency tools, they sound great bc my drum pad has latency and i just adjust it by ear. cheers! yes, im aware of reaper and that its the business, but i havent switched over cos i dont really see the need for a next-level DAW for my hobbyist purposes. also its taken me a while to get comfortable on audacity n i wanna enjoy my level of competence before goin back to square one on another DAW. thanks for the recommendation, its on the list for the future.

As a DAW, Audacity lacks a huge amount of functionality:

• No MIDI recording

• No virtual instruments

• No controller tracks

• No effects automation

• Extremely limited mixer

• No input / output routing

• No support for multiple outputs

• Extremely limited MIDI editing

• No MIDI channel / patch control

• Inflexible Tempo / time signature

• No score functionality

• No Piano Roll

• Extremely limited multi-channel support

• ...and more

As an audio editor, it is still pretty good, though since version 3, I feel it has lost focus on what it previously excelled at - audio editing.

(Audacity was my goto audio editor since version 1.2, but I am now trying out alternatives - unfortunately there aren't many other options for Linux.)

Audio editing software, not a DAW*.

No beat grid, while you can detect the beat, it's only going to register when the track audio contains rhythm elements. You can create a drum track to make a pseudo beat grid, but you can't snap to grid and so have to align other tracks manually.

No none-destructive editing. Changes are permanent once enacted. If you perform any effect on a section of a track, it has to be done on a duplicate, or you can kiss the original goodbye. Sure, there is Edit > Undo, but that's not ideal if you only want to reverse an action 10 steps ago but leave the last 9 steps after it as they are. In most DAWs your changes are in real time and can be adjusted or undone until you bounce or mix down to another track. This is why DAWs are often so resource consuming (CPU and RAM) and when a PC isn't up to spec you'll experience choppy playback, software crashes or worse as your track gets more complex and the systems struggles to manage.

 

* this is all based on versions up to 2.4. I had stability issues after installing 2.4 on my old system, so I stayed with 2.3.3. Then when I built a new PC I reinstalled the same version since the later version improvements were already available to me in the DAWs I use.

I keep Audacity installed to use as a quick and easy audio editor, because that's what it is, or was. I can have a file imported and be working on it in less than 10 seconds after opening the program. When you have a DAW linked to large sound libraries and dozens of plugin folders that need to be scanned the first time you run it after shutdown, you might have to wait 20–30 seconds to start. If all I want to do is loop a section of music to make a 10-second ringtone out of it or reverse a drum hit to hear what it sounds like, then that's what I have Audacity for.

Calling audacity a DAW is like calling Photoshop an animation platform.

It's not what it's trying to be, even if you can do it if you really want to.

Satisfies my needs.